How to Fix Axiom Verge's Steam Problem on the Epic Games Store
It turns out "Steam" is the reason Axiom Verge keeps crashing on the Epic Games Store.
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Axiom Verge is available for free on the Epic Games Store today as part of a limited-time promotion. But reports have come in that Axiom Verge consistently crashes on Epic's launcher during a specific area. It turns out this is because of an overzealous attempt to scrub Axiom Verge's Epic launch of any files related to Steam, including what turned out to be an important audio file.
Players began reporting on social media that Axiom Verge seems to be crashing consistently whenever the player enters a specific area. According to reports, Axiom Verge would crash whenever the player moved between the Absu area to Zi. A little digging from user @NoGasta revealed that this was because the sound effect file "Steam" is missing from Epic's version of Axiom Verge.
Axiom Verge developer Tom Happ confirmed this to be the case on his Twitter account. "I was thinking it being Epic and all, I shouldn't include [Valve's] dlls and such, so I excluded all files with "Steam" in the name... oops." Happ says anybody missing the Steam.xnb sound file can go to Axiom Verge in their Epic Games Store library and update it. The new version of Axiom Verge should contain the missing sound file.
While the problem appears to be solved now, the episode has proven to be an unintentional actualization of the Epic vs. Steam rivalry. While we've seen Epic posture its burgeoning digital storefront with exclusives like Metro Exodus, who would've thought Steam's very existence could unintentionally sabotage Epic's latest release?
If you haven't checked out Axiom Verge yet we highly recommend it. Our Axiom Verge review awarded the Metroidvania throwback a perfect score, calling it, "brilliantly designed and executed." Axiom Verge is available for free on the Epic Games Store until February 21.